RCS Texting 101: What You Need to Know

Rich Communication Services (RCS) is the next leap forward in texting technology, and it’s on the path to becoming the mobile messaging standard. Up until now, we’ve used formats like Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), but in 2024, Apple announced it would support RCS messaging between all types of devices, sparking major excitement among consumers.

However, businesses are also excited about this development. Although it hasn’t been announced yet, RCS Business Messaging will likely be available in early 2025, changing the game for many organizations. In this blog post, we’ll go over the exciting new functionality and features RCS Business Messaging brings to the table. 

What is RCS Texting?

RCS texting is an upgraded version of the SMS and MMS messages we’ve all been sending for years. The main benefit of RCS for businesses is that your messages will now be completely branded. Your logo, colors, and all your business information will be included with every text, increasing trust with your contacts and creating a branded experience.

Now, imagine offering your customers the ability to scroll through carousels of your latest products within their messaging app and purchase with a single click. Rich cards take visual and interactive communication further, combining images, text, and calls to action in an elegant format that’s not just seen but experienced.

Some of the interactive features these rich cards will offer include:

• Buttons: These links or assets allow your recipients to take action with a single click. Confirming an upcoming appointment? There’s no need to respond with "Confirm" when you can just click the button within the message.
• Link previews: Want to steer recipients to your website? They won’t have to cut and paste a link anymore. Instead, they’ll see a link preview that makes it easy for them to tap through to your page and increases trust by showing where they’ll be visiting.
• Rich cards: These are singular messages that contain a mixture of different elements (such as pictures, texts, and buttons) combined into an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-navigate “card” — rather than a message split across different texts.
• Carousels: Carousels let you attach multiple photos and videos into a single text for your recipients to swipe through at their leisure — just like you can scroll sideways on social media pictures to view more.

Another benefit of RCS is that it allows you to send attachments just like MMS does, including:

• Pictures
• Videos
• Other types of files, such as audio files or gifs

In contrast to MMS, however, RCS supports much larger file sizes — allowing for higher-resolution pictures and videos to be sent without compression or quality loss.

RCS also features a wealth of added functions that older messaging formats don’t support, such as:

• Read receipts to show you when your contacts have read your message
• Real-time typing indicators to let you know when your recipient is responding
• Suggested replies to make messaging quicker and easier
• Encryption to increase the security of your messages
• The ability to deliver messages via internet, rather than conventional cell coverage

RCS vs. SMS vs. MMS

While there are similarities, there are also stark differences between RCS, SMS and MMS. Here’s a comparison in terms of features, capabilities, and use cases:

Benefits of RCS Texting

RCS allows businesses to reimagine communication, offering tools and capabilities that improve customer engagement, brand presence, and operational efficiency. The shift to RCS is not just an upgrade—it's a leap towards more dynamic, effective, and engaging communication strategies.

Visual Storytelling

One of the primary pros of using RCS for business texting is the ability to attach high-quality photos and videos. Media is more compelling than plain text and tends to drive higher engagement. Even the lower-resolution images attached to MMS messages can garner 300% more engagement than standard SMS. With the near-lossless capabilities of RCS, time will only tell how much higher that engagement rate can climb. 

Insightful Engagement Tracking

Besides being able to promote your products with crisp, clear pictures and videos, RCS also offers a variety of other ways to more closely connect with your clientele. Read receipts, for instance, let you know:

• Which customers are opening your messages
• Which of your contacts are  engaged with your business
• Your real open rate

Likewise, typing indicators tell you when someone’s responding to you in real-time. This is the perfect opportunity to wait in the chat, reply instantly, and show them how fast and effective your customer service is. The era of live chat support has customers anticipating response times of under one minute — RCS provides you with the tools to meet those lofty expectations. 

Reinforced Brand Identity

RCS messages can be perfectly aligned with the brand's identity. Imagine sending messages that are instantly recognizable, complete with your brand's logo, color scheme, and style – going beyond the uniformity of traditional SMS and MMS. You can create a consistent and recognizable brand experience, enhancing customer loyalty and recognition.

Additionally, you can add all your business information to your contact, so your contacts can instantly access your email, location, business hours, and more.

Interactive Engagement

With RCS, customers are no longer just passive recipients, they become active participants, deeply engaged and ready to take immediate action. By allowing customers to interact directly and spontaneously with content, RCS transforms every message from a mere notification into an opportunity for engagement through rich media such as buttons, carousels, link previews, and more.

This paradigm shift in messaging helps businesses foster meaningful connections, driving higher engagement and participation rates.

Better Security

RCS offers end-to-end encryption that ensures every interaction remains private and protected. By prioritizing privacy and data protection, RCS not only addresses the growing concerns around digital security but also strengthens customer loyalty through a commitment to secure, trustworthy interactions. It makes customers feel more comfortable to interact with your business.

With all the positives RCS offers your business, you’re probably wondering how you can leverage it to improve everyday operations. Luckily for business owners, sales reps, and marketers, RCS has just as many use cases as it does benefits. 

Common Use Cases for RCS Texting

Any company that uses texting to reach out to customers or communicate amongst colleagues can benefit from implementing RCS. In the earlier days of RCS, many of its first adopters were in the tech and entertainment sectors, such as Redbox and SeatGeek. Nowadays, however, brands are implementing it across almost any industry — including e-commerce, the service sector, and more.

In essence, RCS’s effectiveness isn’t dependent on the industry you’re in but rather on the use cases you leverage it for. If you’re already using SMS or MMS messages to connect with clients or communicate internally, RCS can just as easily handle the same tasks. A few of the primary ways savvy modern businesses are utilizing RCS include:

Appointment reminders

In medical settings, reminder texts sent the day before a scheduled appointment can reduce no-shows by up to 11% — and they can have a similar effect in nearly any other industry. RCS is an exceptional medium for delivering appointment reminders as the rich Buttons feature allows customers to instantly confirm their attendance with a single tap of their finger.

Customer support

9 in 10 consumers prefer texting businesses over making phone calls and RCS provides the optimal messaging experience for customer support. With suggested replies allowing you to message back in an instant, live typing indicators letting you know when your client is responding, and rich features to enhance your responses, RCS support puts the Success in Customer Success.

Promotions

RCS takes your promotional messaging campaigns to the next level. With the highest possible image quality for mobile messaging, you’ll be able to show off your new or discounted products in all of their glory. Interactive features such as rich cards let you provide further context to events and take RSVPs right within texts. And, with image carousels to tempt your base with fabulous prizes, you could even see higher engagement in text-to-win contests and similar promotions.

These are a few of the many use cases for RCS messaging, and as the technology develops and improves, its versatility will likely expand as well. To ensure you’re ready to leverage RCS for your future needs, make a plan to implement it in your business as soon as possible.

How to Get Started with RCS Texting

While many modern cell phones are RCS compatible, their native messaging apps aren’t optimized for business texting purposes. The first step you can take towards implementing RCS for business communications is signing up for Text-Em-All.

Once RCS Business Messaging is available, Text-Em-All will simplify RCS messaging with an easy-to-navigate, multifunctional dashboard that enables quick, clear communication with your clientele. However, it’s a good idea to create your Text-Em-All account now so that you can set up your account and be one of the first businesses to access RCS Business Messaging once it has been released. After creating your Text-Em-All account, you can start building your campaigns by:

• Collecting phone numbers and consent: If you already have a collection of customers who’ve opted into messaging from your SMS and MMS campaigns, you can simply import those into Text-Em-All to create your contact list.
• Broadcasting messages: Text-Em-All will help you quickly craft compelling, effective messages with an easy-to-use platform and customizable text keywords.
• Responding to messages: With the ability to automatically generate replies to your clients’ messages, you’ll save hours of time not having to type out the same information over and over again.
• Analyzing your performance: With key metrics about Response Rate and engagement at your fingertips, you can easily see which aspects of your campaign are performing to your standard and which are in need of revision. 

Scalability is a major concern for many businesses implementing an RCS solution. Luckily, with Text-Em-All’s focus on mass messaging, you can easily scale your texting efforts to reach a nearly unlimited number of contacts. Building up a lengthy list of customers can take quite a while, however, so it’s best to implement RCS practices in your business as soon as they are available.

Simplify and Optimize RCS Messaging for Your Business with Text-Em-All

RCS texting is the future of mobile messaging for businesses and consumers alike. With the ability to see when your texts are read, interactive features like rich cards and carousels, and the highest file resolution available, it’s revolutionizing promotional and commercial messaging for companies across the globe. 

Text-Em-All will make RCS texting easy and accessible for businesses in every industry. Simply add your contact list and use our established templates to draft starter messages, and Text-Em-All will help you autonomously run your RCS campaigns with scheduled texts, automated replies, and more. 

Sign up for Text-Em-All for free to see the benefits of RCS in action for your business.